Data

The data set that I’ll be focusing on is the current internment camps for Uighur Muslims in the region of Xinjiang, China.

Introduction

The data set that I’ll be focusing on is the current internment camps for Uighur Muslims in the region of Xinjiang, China. Out of the 12 million Uighur minorities living in the Xinjiang region, over 1 million are detained in internment camps (as of 2019). There is evidence that Uighurs are being used as forced labour and of women being forcibly sterilized. Some former camp detainees have also alleged they were tortured and sexually abused. The reason why the Chinese government are locking up Uighur Muslims is because the camps are there to “combat separatism” and “Islamist militancy” in the region.

Data Visualisation

The type of data visualization that I have executed was a data visualization map of Xinjiang’s Uighur Internment Camps. I used this method because I want to show the audience where some of the camps are located in the Xinjiang region. The small circles represent the camps and its locations.

Findings

The actual number of internment camps as of 2021 are around 380. And of those 380 camps, they’re all divided into 4 tiers. I’ve collected 20 camp locations from each tier. Most of Tier 1 camps are built in 2017, which proves reports of the increase of thousands of Uyghurs being taken into these camps in 2017. Most of Tier 4 camps are built in 2019.

For almost all of the camps, a few buildings are constructed per year since its built date. However, the Mekit Facility in Kashgar constructed 26 buildings in 2020. That shows how deplorable and disgusting the Chinese government is to still build them despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Insights

What I have found from the data is that over the years, these camps would build more buildings within the camp to assumably provide more “living spaces” to capture more Uighur Muslim minorities. This can be seen as a huge human rights issue.

Another thing that I collected from the data is that there are still new camps being built as latest as 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the UN, this is the largest imprisonment of people on the basis of religion since the holocaust. From gathering satellite images, there's evidence that these camps were transformed from barren land, old buildings and farms.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, it’s clear that despite tons of international media coverage and UN reports of human rights issues against the Chinese government and their handling on detaining Uyghurs, the Chinese government will still continue to detain them to abolish the Uyghurs identity on culture, language and religion to create a “unity” between the Uyghurs and Han Chinese and combat “religious extremism”.

References

  • The Xinjiang Data Project, 01/09/2020. https://xjdp.aspi.org.au/
  • Undercover in the Most Dystopian Place in the World, 10/08/2020. https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4x7v/most-dystopian-place-in-world-xinjiang-uighur
  • 'Who are the Uyghurs and why is China being accused of genocide?', 21/06/2021. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037
  • China Secretly Built A Vast New Infrastructure To Imprison Muslims, 27/07/2020. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/china-new-internment-camps-xinjiang-uighurs-muslims